Step 9: Current use

Step 10: Final form

As requested, here's a few pics of how the NES PC looks at the moment.

Ah, the Nintendo Entertainment System. Brings me back a lot of good memories: Super Mario Bros., Double Dragon, Megaman. It also brings back not-so-great memories. The agony of changing cartridges, blowing until you're dizzy and still getting nothing but a flashing screen when you start the console. When you finally got the cartridge to run, it could freak out at any time from the smallest dust particle in the connectors.

Luckily, those days are gone now. NES emulators can be found for the PC. These nifty little programs are designed to run NES games as accurately as possible. All you need is the emulator itself, and a ROM for a NES game. Remember, owning a ROM without owning the original game cart might be illegal where you live.

'Now, on to the topic of the instructable': I wanted to play NES and other oldish consoles on the NES PC, and also play Divx/DVD videos etc. Playing NES games on your computer is fine, but I wanted more of an original feel to it. I thought I'd be able to put a PC full with hard drive and DVD drive inside of a NES case, attach some controllers to it, and hook it up to my TV.

I built a NES PC last year, and it's fairly easy once you have everything you need. If you're going to build a new NES PC, I suggest using a Zotac IONITX-A-U motherboard, since it comes with a 90W power brick that connects to the NES like the original NES power connector. It also has a dual core Intel Atom processor, and Nvidia ION graphics, which are capable of running 1080p Bluray movies. The Silverstone TOB02 is the only slimline Bluray drive I know of. I use a tri-color LED for the Power LED, it lets me use it for power and HDD activity. I have a third color available if I ever need it.

Great job, that looks fantastic, other than the USB ports being slightly uneven from each other (I'm a nitpicker hehe, srry). My questions for you are:

- how did you go about connecting the tri-color LED to the motherboard - the frontal USB ports, did you use a custom mounted board or something and if so how did you attach it to the board - do you still have any information from this project like schematics, etc? - how many fans did you use and what size - did this require much more cutting etc?

Thanks in advance. I've got most of the components already picked out... not looking to rush in until I'm sure I can do this!

Lots of hot glue to attach the USB ports, and all you need for the LEDs is to wire the single ground of the tri-color LEDs to both the grounds on the board (for the Power and HDD activity LED headers) I didn't think it through too well, I just did it. More pics at http://img198.imageshack.us/g/img2409t.jpg/ if you want to see how it looks inside. I used the fan that came with the motherboard, and 40mm fans. I should have cut some of the plastic covering the top vents off on the inside so it actually vents some air, it's pretty much an oven right now. I also used lots of hot glue for the motherboard headers. It required a fair bit of cutting, but not too much.

Wow thanks for the awesomely quick reply. That's pretty much along the lines of what I was thinking, except i had no idea wiring in the LED was so simple, thanks!

After looking at your imageshack photo's I have one additional question. Where your blueray drive slides out, it appears to have two "faceplates" I guess you could call them, one white and one black. Is this a feature of the drive or did you rig this up? I'm considering using a regular CDR/DVDR slim drive (laptop style) for this, just curious how yours works.

When you open the drive does it open the NES cartridge hinge automatically or do you need to pre-open it? Not a big deal, just curious.

It comes with an optional slim fan but I didn't have room to put it on the way it was meant to go, so I used a 40mm fan to blow from the side. I'm not sure how loud the fan is by itself, but I know that I've used so many 40mm fans in it that it's really loud. I could optimise the airflow a bit more but I've kinda just left it. The atom gets to 80C under full load sometimes, but it should be fine. The ION gets to about 55C.

I want to build one of these, and have been looking around for my options. I came across an acer one that has hdmi out with a broken screen on ebay. intel atom 1.66, 320gb hdd, 1 gig of ram. I checked dimensions, and the components should have no problem fitting in NES. This would even make the little retro box wireless if ever needed. What are you thoughts? I could snag this cheaper than mini itx mobo.

Great Job on this project! now i just need to buy a nes! just a suggestion but if you put a piece of wood or something under the lid at an angel, then the drive when ejecting will push the lid up when it opens. nice project!

I was thinking the same thing. By the time the build is done you could spend $300, or just buy a mini pc or an old netbook for under a $100. It's cheating for sure, but it is quick and painless. Of course, this is a 5 year old instructable so I'm sure that's what he would have done now.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Xbox-Hackintosh/ Mine is similar as yours. Btw you cant put graphics card to a pci slot... pci slot uses something like wireless and other computer accessory. but very good work!

It doesnt cost much to do this.. The NES i got on ebay for 15$, the cd drive i got from an old PC, the4 motherboard i bought on newegg.com for 115$ it was an mini itx as well. the cables r cheap.. u can get them on dealextreme for like 2$ the picoPSU goes for around 60 bucks with the adapter included so all and all it will cost 250$

If all you want is to run emulators, one could skip the hard drive and install a small OS to a flash stick. Most modern mobos can boot from them. That would save space, heat, power consumption and some money on IDE adapters.There are some even smaller form factors than itx that have processor, ram, graphics, sound and storage all on-board, meant for embedded systems but would work for this build too.Also if one was clever he might add a piece of structure that would push the cart lid up as the cd tray slid out. Slick.